UOC mission team briefed before leaving for Ukraine (08/15/04)

UOC mission team briefed before leaving for Ukraine

SOUTH BOUND BROOK, N.J. - On July 30, after a day briefing at the Church Center, a team of faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. has left for Ukraine.

Nine young adults and college students, led by Father Taras Naumenko of Palos Park, Ill., will spend two weeks working at the two orphanages that are sponsored by the Church, helping with basic repairs to the facilities, assisting the staff with basic care and providing comfort to the needy children.

The nuclear disaster at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine on April 26, 1986, and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe have brought disarray to the economic and social fabric of Ukraine. Most vulnerable during these trying times have been the elderly, the handicapped and the orphaned children. Since Ukraine's declaration of Independence in 1991, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. has been supportive in aiding Ukraine's children.

The United Orthodox Sisterhoods, St. Andrew's Society, the Ukrainian Orthodox League and individual parishes through a multitude of civic funds have provided for the needs of children, especially the orphans in Ukraine. Six years ago, the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church here in America coordinated an effort to establish a neo-natal unit at a children's hospital in Chernihiv, just 60 miles from Chornobyl.

Recently, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. has taken on the sponsorship of two orphanages in Ukraine, again through the coordination of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund. One children's home is in Znamianka, Kirovohad Oblast, and the other in Zaluchia, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.

The Zaluchia orphanage is home to many handicapped children that probably will never be adopted. This is the second time that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has sent such a mission team to work at these two orphanages.

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